The Early Cold War, 1945-60 Flashcards
The Yalta Conference, February 1945
- Roosevelt (USA), Churchill (Britain) and Stalin (USSR)
1. Agreed to divide Germany into 4 zones, between Britain, France, USA and USSR. Capital Berlin (in the soviet zone) would also be divided into 4 sections
2. Nazi war criminals would be hunted down and tried
3. Stalin would have influence over Eastern Europe but all nations would be allowed to have free elections to decide who ran their country
4. Stalin agreed to enter the war against Japan
5. UN to be set up to replace LofN
6. Germany should pay reparations
Disagreement - over government and frontiers of Poland
Potsdam Conference, July 1945
- Held after defeat of Germany, while war with Japan was still going on
- Changes in leadership: Roosevelt had been replaced by Truman (fiercely anti-communist) and Churchill had been replaced as PM in Britain by Attlee
- Soviet troops had occupied most of E. Europe and stayed there - Stalin had set up new communist government in Poland
- No free elections had been held
16th July - USA had successfully tested atom bomb, without telling Stalin - Led to a much more hostile atmosphere than at Yalta
- Division of Germany and treatment of war criminals agreed at Yalta was confirmed at Potsdam
- Alliance between USSR and the West appeared to be over
The Effects of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
- USA suffering massive casualties in Japan at end of WW2 so decision was made to drop atom bomb, in an attempt to persuade the Japanese to surrender
- 6th Aug 1945 - US bomber ‘Enola Gay’ dropped ‘Little Boy’ on Hiroshima (killed 78,000)
- 9th Aug 1945 - ‘Fat Man’ was dropped on Nagasaki (killed 74,000)
- Japan did surrender
- Increased tensions between superpowers - Stalin was furious that USA had not told him about atom bomb
- USA now appeared to be more powerful than USSR
- Horror expressed by many worldwide at use of A-bomb, led to growth of CND
- 1949 - USSR developed atom bomb
- MAD = mutually assured destruction
- Prevented ‘Hot War’ - half a century of ‘Cold War’ instead
Soviet Expansion in The East
- USSR and Communism expanded rapidly after WW2
- Stalin wanted ‘buffer zone’ between Russia and Western Europe, to prevent further invasion of Russia
- Stalin’s Red Army ‘liberated’ states from Nazi control, only to replace them with Soviet occupation
- Communist governments took control in Albania, Bulgaria and Poland (1945), Romania (1947), Hungary and Czechoslovakia (1948)
- East Germany was ruled directly by USSR until 1949 when it became the communist German Democratic Republic
- Yugoslavia - communists took control in 1945 under Tito, who split with USSR in 1948 ie a communist country NOT controlled by Stalin
The Iron Curtain
- USSR’s actions alarmed many in the West, Churchill in particular
- March 1946 - he made a speech to an American audience in Fulton, Missouri explaining his concerns
- He described the division between the East and West as an ‘IRON CURTAIN’ having descended between the two sides
- This was NOT a physical division, but a POLITICAL and ECONOMIC divide
- On one side were the one-party communist states of the East
- On the other side were the capitalist democracies of the West
- Churchill was calling for an alliance of the West to resist the further expansion of the USSR ie trying to encourage the USA to be more involved in European affairs
The Truman Doctrine
By 1947 there was a greater threat of other European countries becoming communist. Greece and Turkey were both under threat of becoming communist and the USA decided to act.
March 1947: US President Truman pledged to provide support for any country under threat of communism and decided it would take the lead in trying to contain Communism. As a result the American Congress agreed to give aid of $400 million to Greece and Turkey to allow them to fight Communism which they did and both remained democratic.
Seen as a new era in US foreign policy - Truman had made it clear that USA would aim to stop the spread of Communism throughout the world = CONTAINMENT
Viewed by many as the start of the Cold War
The Marshall Plan
June 1947 US General Marshall visited Europe to assess economic situation - returned to USA convinced that countries in Europe (particularly France and Italy) were about to turn to Communism because of poverty.
Resulted in Marshall Plan, to put Truman Doctrine into action - estimated US$15 billion needed for European recovery
US Congress hesitated to approve this, but in Feb 1948 Stalinist Communists took over in Czechoslovakia - Jan Masaryk, only minister in govt who supported the West, ‘fell’ out of a window to his death
USA was alarmed greatly by this further spread of Communism -
Marshall Aid was approved by Congress March 1948
Marshall Aid
- USA set aside a fund of $15 billion
- 16 nations asked for Marshall Aid, Britain and France received the most
- West Germany also received some aid
- Aid often came in the form of materials such as machinery and fertilizers
- Between 1948-1950 industrial production in Europe rose by 25%
- By 1952 most countries in Europe were on the way to economic recovery
- Marshall Aid was also offered to Communist states but Stalin didn’t allow countries in the East to accept it, as he felt the USA were bribing Soviet states so they would be dependent on the West = DOLLAR IMPERIALISM
- President Tito accepted Marshall Aid so Stalin expelled Yugoslavia from Cominform in 1948
Cominform
1947 Communist leaders from around the world were summoned to a conference in Warsaw where it was agreed they protect Communist states from American aggression and attempt to spread Communism further. The Communist Information Bureau was called Cominform.
1948 Stalin demonstrated his power by expelling the Communist leader of Yugoslavia, Tito, as he refused to follow Stalin’s wishes.
1949 USSR introduced Molotov Plan, which established Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon) - made economic links with other Communist countries, encouraged trade between them
Stalin was actually increasing his power over Communist states - USA saw Cominform and Comecon as serious threats
Berlin Blockade
- First big crisis of Cold War
- After WW2 Britain and USA decided a strong Germany would be a good buffer against Communism - wanted to rebuild the German economy
- Stalin was very suspicious of this - felt that the allies were ganging up against him
- Stalin had actually weakened East Germany, stripped it of all useful equipment and machinery
- 1947 - Britain and USA had joined their zones ‘Bizonia’
- Then France joined them ‘Trizonia’
- By 1948, recovery was taking place in West Germany
- 23rd June 1948 - new currency ‘Deutschmark’ was introduced into West Germany, this caused a rush on the currency in the East
- 24th June Stalin closed all routes into West Berlin
- Plan was to force West to withdraw from West Berlin
The Berlin Airlift
The Western Allies decided they had to supply Berlin with food and would do this through an airlift. This started slowly but by Spring 1949 8,000 tons of fuel and food was being supplied to West Berlin.
Stalin added more pressure by cutting off electricity and offering extra food to those who moved to East Berlin- only 2% chose this option and Stalin was further humiliated.
As a result Stalin tried to shot down the allied planes if they left the air corridors set up but despite the cost and death of pilots through accident the blockade did not work.
By the end of 1949 Germany was formally split into two with Western Germany being called the Federal Republic of Germany and Eastern Germany being called the German Democratic Republic.
Communism and Capitalism
Communism
- USSR was a communist country from 1917.
- This meant it had a one-party government and had no free elections to decide who would run the country.
- The state also owned industry and agriculture.
Capitalism
- Countries like the USA were democracies which meant they held free elections were people decided the political parties who ran the country.
- Capitalist countries had industry and agriculture which was run privately for profit.
These two systems had opposite beliefs so both groups feared each other. Whilst capitalist countries thought that the USSR wanted to turn all countries communist the USSR feared the USA wanted to destroy their system.
This led to what is called the COLD WAR.
NATO
Berlin Blockade convinced Western powers they needed a defensive alliance to oppose any further acts of aggression by Stalin.
NATO- This was the North Atlantic Treaty Organization set up in 1949. It consisted of USA, Canada, Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Iceland, Luxembourg, Italy, Norway, Denmark and Portugal. Greece, Turkey and West Germany joined later.
NATO
All agreed to help each other against acts of aggression.
Had an army with a common command
Allowed USA to have air bases in Western Europe
It was intended as a DEFENSIVE organization but…
USSR viewed NATO as AGGRESSIVE and felt threatened.
Korean War Events
In 1950 the North successfully invaded the South and took almost all of South Korea except the ‘Pusan Pocket’ in the South East. South Korea appealed to the United Nations to support them and this was agreed because the USSR was absent from the Security Council.
16 nations were involved led by the USA and 32 became involved by the end. A successful sea landing was achieved under General Douglas MacArthur and the North Korean’s were soon in retreat as UN troops moved towards the Chinese border.
The Chinese now felt threatened and told the UN forces not to cross the Yalu river but MacArthur did and 250,000 Chinese ‘volunteers’ attacked pushing the UN forces back to the 38 N Parallel.
North Korea Consequences
- Extended Cold War into the Far East and involved China for the first time.
- Showed Truman was prepared to support CONTAINMENT
- There was some ‘reluctance’ by the superpowers to make this a ‘HOT’ war. The Soviets did not become directly involved and the USA stopped short of invading China.
- The UN had resisted an act of aggression - more than LofN had been able to do. But…
- UN seen by communists as a ‘capitalist tool’.
- Korea remained divided and this was permanent.
